Photo of the week: Sharp-shinned Hawk

This engaging portrait of a young Sharp-shinned Hawk is our photo of the week. Frequent gallery contributor Chuck Hoekman took the photo in October 2013 and posted it to our Backyard Gallery.

Hoekman shot it in his Ivins, Utah, backyard while standing behind a five-foot brick wall. He held his Sony A77 camera and 70-400mm lens on the top of the wall. The hawk had just caught a sparrow and was perched on an iron railing below a mimosa tree. “The Sharp-shinned noticed me, but all he could see was my head and the camera,” Hoekman says. “It seemed more interested in finishing the sparrow. The out-of-focus green at the bottom of the picture is the top of an oleander bush I was shooting over.”

Your picture could be a Photo of the Week!

A picture you take could win you a subscription to BirdWatching! We choose a new photo every Monday. And every other month, we ask a professional bird photographer whose work we’ve published in the magazine to pick the best Photo of the Week over the previous two months. We’ll give the winner a free one-year subscription to BirdWatching. Plus, we’ll publish his or her photo in the magazine! Send us your photo today!